okay, here´s the deal, Posting while in the city sucks, because seriously my life there is like my life in providence: fun, but pretty much the same schedule. And if I wrote about that over and over again, you guys would get really really bored.
But now I´m not in Belem and actually have something exciting to write about :)
So, backing up a couple of weeks...days..whatever I started doing some serious research for my ISP (independent study project), which led me to an organization called POEMA (program poverty and the environment). After several frustrating and serious p-timed (polychronic time aka brazilians never get anything done on time, time)meetings with a couple of professors I was finally allowed a meeting with a graduate student who is working on a project in this place called Salvaterra on this BEAUTIFUL island called Marajo. It is the largest river island in the WORLD and I really don´t see how you could go back to the city after living here...but anyway...
The project:
this grad student (Linda) works with POEMA, a couple of other NGOs and Beraca (a popular brazilian cosmetics company) training women in riberinho (river people) communities to extract oil from andiroba seeds (a type of tree), which the women then sell to Beraca for various uses in cosmetics. The women also make candles and other crafts for sale on the island. The money generated from this project goes towards sustainable development for the communities, such as being able to send their children to school, which they weren´t able to do before.
I want to research whether or not the objectives of the project from the companies involved mirror those of the communities´outlooks on sustainable development, and if not what changes could potentially be made to the project?
I´m biking (because bikes outnumber cars here..so legal) to the communities tomorrow with Linda to talk with them, which is pretty exciting.I have no doubt in my mind that these are the types of projects I want to work on when I get a real job :)
Other things:
I´m staying with Linda on the island because she seriously is one of the nicest women you will ever meet, and I realized how much I could get used to this life...I went to Bariga class last night, which is a type of dance and then I woke up this morning at 6am (yes I wrote that correctly) and went running by the beach. Then for breakfast I had an avacado e queijo sandwich, with papaya and suco de maracuja (passion fruit)and cherry. Then I decided to wander and take some pictures, and now I´m here. PERFECTION.
I definitely needed to get out of the city because as much as I have made my peace with Belem and as much as I like my host family, there are times when I can´t deal with the same schedule all the time so I start to miss home (which is acceptable but kind of ridiculous at the same time because I mean I am in Brazil). After these 2 weeks, I have a little over a week left (10 days) and then it´s back to the states...crazycrazycrazy.
okay then I should go
Tchau gente!
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